On
June 21, 2006, Mariano Gurfinkel presented
an overview of North American LNG during the National
Commission on Energy Policy's Forum on LNG Facility Siting,
which was held in Washington, D. C. The forum, co-sponsored
by The Center for LNG, the Natural Resources Defense Council,
and the American Chemistry Council, explored the state of
LNG-facility siting in the United States and addressed obstacles
and challenges to LNG infrastructure development. Link
to the event.06/27/06

A big Texas howdy to Jozina Dirkzwager, who
recently joined Martin Jackson, Mike
Hudec and Tim Dooley in the Applied
Geodynamics Laboratory. Dr. Dirkzwager's degrees in Earth
and Life Sciences were bestowed by the Free University Amsterdam,
the Netherlands, although most recently she has been doing
postdoctoral research at the Geophysical Institute, Karlsruhe
University, Karlsruhe, Germany. Dr. Dirkzwager works with
mechanical earth models (MEM) and 3D finite element modeling.
06/19/06

Dr. Foss and Dr. Gülen
spent a week in Nigeria (June 5–9) teaching a course
titled "Oil, Gas & Power Value
Chain," along with the University of Port Harcourt's
Gas Research Group. The course was attended by 24 industry
professionals. Click here for course
flyer. On June 9, Mariano Gurfinkel was
the closing speaker of the 2-day conference on "Oil
and Politics in Venezuela" sponsored by Universidad
de los Andes and the Romulo
Betancourt Foundation. The event included other distinguished
speakers, such as Arturo Hernández Grisanti
and Humberto Carlderon Berti (former Ministers
of Energy and former Presidents of OPEC) and Alberto
Quirós Corradi (former President of Shell
Venezuela and Maraven). Dr. Gurfinkel's presentation focused
on the world energy outlook and perspectives for Venezuela
under the current fiscal regime. Click here for article
and flyer.
06/19/06

Martin Jackson accepts the Jackson School
of Geosciences's Joseph C. Walter Excellence Award from Dean
Bill Fisher. Shirley Dutton
kindly nominated him. The award was provided for in an endowment
created by Mr. J. C. Walter Jr. and approved
by the Board of Regents in 1977. It was originally titled
the Houston Oil and Gas Corporation Excellence Award and was
designed to provide annual awards to faculty "in recognition
of outstanding service and special contributions to teaching
and research programs." With the creation of the Jackson School
of Geosciences, and with the thorough endorsement of Mr. J.
C. Walter III, the award has been renamed the Joseph C. Walter
Jr. Excellence Award and is now extended schoolwide. 06/14/06

The FRAC team was in the field in Scotland recently collecting
interwell- and core-scale data on fracture patterns and fracture
diagenesis from reservoir-analog outcrops. Spectacular, large,
bedding-plane pavements are providing unique information for
calibrating core analysis and fracture modeling and prediction
methods. Results will be reported at the October 2006 FRAC
meeting. More information is available on the Research
page. View
picture gallery here. Contact Steve Laubach
for information. 06/02/06

Kira
Diaz-Tushman is the recipient of the AAPG Raymond
D. Woods Memorial Grant. Kira is investigating regional
and intrawell-scale fracture patterns in NW Scotland. Kira
and her field area recently appeared on the cover of the Journal
of Petroleum Geology. See the FRAC
Slide archive for a copy of Kira's presentations and preliminary
results. 06/02/06

CEE
Doings in May

Click
photos to enlarge.

On Thursday, May 25, Mariano Gurfinkel was
an invited speaker on "Options for
Marginal and Heavy Oil Fields" at the North American
present and future reliance on heavy oils workshop held in
Villahermosa, Mexico. The workshop is part of the activities
of the Hydrocarbon Working Group
of the Security and Prosperity Partnership
of North America. Dr. Gurfinkel presented a review
of the evolution of EOR projects in carbonates in the United
States and an introduction to the role of in-situ upgrading
in the exploitation of extra-heavy crude oil resources. On
May 24, Dr. Michelle Foss was a keynote speaker
at the International Energy Credit
Association's Education Seminar: What
is Today's Message from the Markets for Energy? On
May 18, Dr. Foss presented at the Energy
& Communications Conference 2006 organized by the
Texas Society of CPA's, held in Austin. Dr. Foss provided
an update on LNG in a presentation titled "LNG:
Can We Build It?" [PDF].
From May 8 through May 19, CEE hosted 26 delegates at its
6th annual, capacity-building program: New Era in Oil, Gas
& Power Value Creation. This year's program welcomed dele
gates from Angola, Cote D'Ivoire, Ecuador, Ghana, Iraq, Korea,
Mexico, Nigeria, Turkey, and the U.S. The program included
in-class sessions, presentations by energy experts, and two
field trips. On May 4, API published Oil and Gas Industry
Investments in Alternative Energy, Frontier Hydrocarbons and
Advanced End-Use Technologies. The research, undertaken
by API, was performed by the Institute for Energy Research
with support from CEE. Read
press release. Download report [PDF].
On May 3, Dr. Foss presented at the OTC Panel Session: Technology
Commercialization: Energy Policy Act 2005. 06/02/06